Alumnus builds on teamwork
As a student-athlete of Meridian Community College’s 2011-13 Eagle Baseball team, Alvin Franklin fondly remembers Friday morning fall workout circuits.
“We would be the only people on campus on those cold mornings, but it was those moments that brought our team closer together,” Franklin said.
Building relationships and working together as a team continues to drive the 29-year-old Franklin. He is an assistant athletic director at Mississippi State University, where he is a liaison between MSU Athletics and MSU Foundation, securing major gifts for both organizations.
But that’s not all. Franklin serves as an adjunct professor teaching sports finance at Mississippi University for Women in addition to being the SEC representative for athletic development. He also serves on the National Association of Athletic Development Directors Diversity Working Group Committee.
Franklin got his collegiate start at MCC. “I came on a baseball scholarship, and I was recruited out of high school by Coach Dillon Sudduth,” Franklin said. A University Transfer Program student, Franklin took foundational courses for a degree in business and earned his associate in arts. Franklin continued his baseball career at Jackson State University and received his bachelor’s degree in economics.
But Franklin didn’t stop his academic pursuits; he earned a master’s degree in sports administration from MSU and a master’s degree in high education from Purdue University.
He has held positions within athletic administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of South Alabama, and Purdue. He also was the sports information director and assistant baseball coach at Hinds Community College.
MCC, he said, offered a welcoming environment. “The people there are accommodating and care about your well-being, and that was evident throughout my two years there,” he said.
What advice would he give others considering college? “Choose a place that wants you there just as bad as you want to be there,” he said.
He added, “Build valuable relationships with faculty and staff as they are in place to assist you with having the best experience possible.”